We are grateful to write this annual letter to you, sharing with you our vision, mission, and some of our accomplishments this year, and asking for your engagement with us. Your commitment to Upaya helps make it possible for us to respond to the thousands of people Upaya serves every year, and to continue and deepen the brave work of social innovation that is at the heart of our institution.

Upaya Circle of the Way Temple, photo by Cira Crowell, 2016

If you have already made a year-end donation to Upaya, we thank you so much for your generosity.

As you know, Upaya engages with the world through our high quality faculty and educational programs and retreats, our dedicated service to others, and our innovations in bringing together social action and contemplative perspectives. Roshi Joan Halifax travels the globe teaching and solidifying partnerships in Asia, Europe, Canada, and, of course, the United States. Joshin Brian Byrnes and Genzan Quennell provide a strong and inspired base for our retreats and teachings, and our vibrant residency program provides paths of service and learning for dedicated practitioners from around the world. All of this makes Upaya a bold, nimble, and creative model of socially engaged Buddhism.

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As Joshin and I write this letter, we are bearing witness to a world caught in the grips of reactivity. Upaya is a gathering place for those working to create racial, economic, and environmental justice; compassionate care for the most vulnerable; and a place of committed, daily contemplative practice and learning. In this time, when politics is contentious and the world carries the burdens of war, degradation, and insatiability, Upaya plays a critical role in fostering awakening and action. Your partnership makes this possible.

Through Upaya’s annual Nepal Nomads Clinic, a team of committed volunteers provides medical and humanitarian aid, and training of Nepali health care providers in the most remote areas of the Himalayas. This year, the team of nearly 100 Nepalis and Westerners spent five weeks offering medical service in the underserved region of Dolpo, where over 900 patients were seen in the clinics, and significant donations of medicines, Little Sun solar lights, toothbrushes, eyeglasses, sunglasses, and clothing were made to remote villages near the Chinese border.

In the coming year, Upaya’s Chaplaincy Program welcomes its 10th cohort of students who engage in system-changing work in hospitals, prisons, government agencies, and advocacy organizations across the country and around the world.

Roshi has offered her G.R.A.C.E.® compassion training to hundreds in the Netherlands, Japan, and at medical schools across the United States.

Upaya has been a pioneer and continues to be on the forefront of the training of clinicians in compassionate care through the Being with Dying Training and related programs.

Being With Dying faculty wearing GRACElets, 2016.

Globally, Upaya is expanding the dharma by offering one of the largest collections of free Dharma Podcasts with over 3.5 million downloads from people in over 170 countries.

Joshin leads Street Retreats in cities all over the United States for practitioners who want to engage in the challenging practice of bearing witness to homelessness.

Locally, Genzan, with the assistance of Ray Olson, grows Upaya’s service in the Prison Project. Genzan also leads meditation in local substance use recovery centers.

Here at Upaya’s campus, we continue to offer an outstanding schedule of programming led by world-renowned teachers in Buddhism, neuroscience, philosophy, the arts, and compassionate end-of-life care.

Upaya’s Resident Program offers a unique opportunity for those who wish to experience a greater depth of practice, service, and training. This year we have more residents in long-term service commitments than ever before in our history.

Joshin leads the Gate of Sweet Nectar liturgy.

Upaya is one of those rare institutions that is able to innovate and deepen programs, bringing together passionate individuals to work, study, and practice in an environment of cooperation and compassion.

People come from around the world to sit Rohatsu at Upaya. Rohatsu marks the enlightenment of the Buddha, and is a time of intensive practice. This year, our Rohatsu is led by Roshis Joan Halifax and Enkyo O’Hara, with Sensei Kazuaki Tanahashi. Sensei Shinzan Palma and Genzan Quennell will be officiating at the altar. Joshin Byrnes is Tenzo. The zendo is completely full, and because of the intensity of the practice, the Wednesday Dharma Talk is not open to the public.

Upaya holds other sesshins throughout the year. Please review this list and click on the links to get more information and to register. You can email or call our Registrar, Roberta for more information at 505-986-8518 ext. 112, registrar@upaya.org.

Standing at the edge of this election, it’s clear we have our work cut out for us. It is the work of love and wisdom in the face of the terrible suffering of war, environmental issues, racism, gender violence, and economic injustice. We have to work together to shift the tide toward what will benefit our children, the natural world, the future. Part of this means that we have to change the mind, move out of harsh negativity, eroding futility and fear, and build toward the good and the wise. We also have to work to shift the mood of the country and of the world through compassionate education, deep practice, and service to others.

So please, stop and look deeply, and let’s work together in not building a contentious future, but a generative one. And let’s not pretend we know, but be open and learn; let’s bear witness to what is happening in our country, in our world, and take wise, compassionate, and courageous responsibility. Let’s reach through differences, listen deeply, and “give no fear.”

Here are the four great vows of the Bodhisattvas in community:Creations are numberless, we vow to free them.Delusions are inexhaustible, we vow to transform them.Reality is Boundless, we vow to perceive it. The awakened way is unsurpassable, we vow to embody it.……… do not squander life!

]]>https://www.upaya.org/2016/11/message-roshi-joan/feed/14Election Day Survival Kit: Maia Duerrhttps://www.upaya.org/2016/11/election-day-survival-kit-maia-duerr/
https://www.upaya.org/2016/11/election-day-survival-kit-maia-duerr/#commentsMon, 07 Nov 2016 17:47:58 +0000https://www.upaya.org/?p=37069The frenetic energy of this election in the U.S. is moving me to reach out today, in case you’re in the same emotional/mental state that I’ve been in lately.

What a time this is…. It reminds me of moments in my own meditation practice when monkey mind gets a grip on me and runs off screaming into the treetops. That’s what it feels like is happening to us, collectively.

On Tuesday, November 8, I encourage you to take time to re-connect with your body, with your breath, even more than usual. If you have a sitting meditation or yoga practice, engage with it even more.

The other day, I was taking a walk and passed a house with Trump/Pence signs. It won’t surprise you to know that’s not who I am voting for. In fact to be honest I have quite a bit of aversion to those who are. When I saw that sign in front of the house I could feel my anger rising up. Then I noticed a large animal trap in their yard in which a bird had gotten stuck. I thought about what to do, and realized the civil thing was to knock on the door and let the owner know so they could release the bird. As I waited for the door to open, I felt my resistance rising to this unknown person who would be in the house. It took a while, and finally a very small and very old lady opened the door. She looked a bit fearful of me and my dog Lucy, so I quickly explained why I was there. Like me, she was upset that a bird would be caught in that trap. She said she would tell her husband about it. I asked if she would like me to take care of it and open the trap door so the bird could be released. She was very grateful and said yes.

Those kinds of interactions are what we all need right now, I believe…. We need to see each other as fellow creatures on this earth, who care about the wellbeing of other creatures, even if our political perspectives and lifestyles may be world apart. We need to find ways to care about each other, and about what we share together.

Here’s how I think about this election – it’s a beginning, not an end. No matter how things turn out next Tuesday, we have good work to do, and we need to do it together. One person, the President, cannot save us (or for that matter, ruin us). What can you bring to the table, and how can we all work together, across differences, for a world that works for everyone?

May I invite you to re-direct your energy away from the insanity of this particular election cycle and toward grassroots movements that can make a huge difference in the long run, but need your energy and solidarity to continue to build and strengthen them. They are everywhere… your local Planned Parenthood group, the network of Black Lives Matter activists, the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the Citizens’ Climate Change Lobby… just to name a few. This is where the paradigm shift that we yearn for will happen.

You may already be doing this – I’d love to hear your story.

Maia Duerr directed Upaya’s Buddhist Chaplaincy Training Program from its inception in 2008 to 2014 and continues to serve on Upaya’s Engaged Buddhism faculty. She also serves as a Practice Mentor for Upaya.

Maia is an anthropologist, writer, and editor. In 2012, she received lay ordination from Roshi Joan Halifax as a lay Buddhist chaplain. She is also a student in the Soto Zen lineage of Suzuki Roshi, and has lived and practiced at the San Francisco Zen Center where she received jukai from Victoria Shosan Austin in 2008.

From 2004-2008, Maia worked at the Buddhist Peace Fellowship where she served as executive director and editor of Turning Wheel magazine.

From 2002-2004, Maia was the research director of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she led a study on the use of meditation and other contemplative practices in secular settings. She is the author of a number of articles on this topic, including “The Contemplative Organization,” published in the Journal of Organizational Change Management.

You can learn more about Maia’s work and her writings on her website: www.maiaduerr.com.

]]>https://www.upaya.org/2016/11/election-day-survival-kit-maia-duerr/feed/1Calling Out to Hungry Hearts: Serving Our Santa Fe Communityhttps://www.upaya.org/2016/11/calling-hungry-hearts-serving-santa-fe-community/
https://www.upaya.org/2016/11/calling-hungry-hearts-serving-santa-fe-community/#commentsTue, 01 Nov 2016 06:56:52 +0000https://www.upaya.org/?p=36918Calling out to hungry heartsAll the lost and the left behindGather round and share this mealYour joy and your sorrow, I make it mine—The Gate of Sweet Nectar Liturgy

Our Santa Fe street retreat group

In July, I joined a small group of beloved Upaya residents in living on the streets of Santa Fe for a few days without money, a practice known in the Zen Peacemaker Order as “street retreat.” What I thought I knew from a season working the night shift at the Interfaith Community Shelter became a physical reality: how far people walk in our town to get meals in different locations, what kind of food is offered; which times there are no meals offered at all.

Our time on the streets of our hometown was an experience of coming into deeper relationship with everyone we met who lived there, being the recipients of incredible kindness from our house-less brothers and sisters and those who offer services to them. As we fell in love with this street sangha and at the same time felt where the gaps were in the services offered locally, we felt a shared and urgent call to step up in getting involved as a Upaya community to serve in this area.

Photo by Jennifer Esperanza

We are now assembling a bodhisattva team of volunteers to begin making, serving, and sharing meals with our homeless neighbors at The Interfaith Community Shelter a.k.a. “Pete’s Place.” If you are interested in joining us, there are a few different ways you can get involved:

We need six people who can bake two dozen baked goods (brownies or Snickerdoodle cookies) at home and bring to Upaya.

We need helpers to serve the meal at Pete’s on the Monday evenings, November 21 and December 12.

We need volunteers to help in the Upaya kitchen with preparing food for these meals on Saturday and Sunday morning, November 19-20, and December 10-11.

Contact Áine at aine@upaya.org and Koshoat briand@upaya.org if you’re interested in getting involved.

Above: Tiantong Monastery where the great thirteenth-century Japanese Zen Master Dogen was trained by his teacher Rujing.

Join us for a unique opportunity traveling to historical monasteries and sites where two of Buddhism’s most notable writers wrote and lived. Your two guides are renowned Buddhist scholars, authors, and teachers. During this pilgrimage, we practice zazen together and read passages from Dogen’s writings and Hanshan’s poems.

Our trip begins and ends in Shanghai. We travel to monasteries which Dogen visited in Putuoshan and Hangzhou on West Lake, including Tiantong Monastery. We visit Tiantai Monastery, the center of the Tiantai School of Buddhism (Japanese Tendai) as well as the nearby cave where the legendary hermit Hanshan lived and wrote his poems on the wall.

“A fool sees himself as another, but a wise man sees others as himself.”

– Eihei Dogen, Japanese Zen Master and founder of the Soto school of Zen

“Scanning the green slopes below,
I discuss the profound principle with the white clouds.”

– Hanshan, Legendary Tang Dynasty poet and one of Buddhism’s most intriguing and lovable figures.

Sensei Kazuaki Tanahashi is an artist and Buddhist scholar. His publications include Moon in a Dewdrop: Writings of Zen Master Dogen and The Heart Sutra: A Comprehensive Guide to the Classic of Mahayana Buddhism. He and Peter Levitt collaborated on Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen’s Shobo Genzo and The Essential Dogen.

Sensei Peter Levitt is the guiding teacher of the Salt Spring Zen Circle in British Columbia. An award winning poet, his fourteen books of poetry and prose includeWithin Within and One Hundred Butterflies. Currently, he and Kaz Tanahashi are completing a volume of the 307 poems of Hanshan.

“Noah and I just returned home to Upaya after two months of heartwarming travel, learning, service, and joy. We miss the deep smiles of our Nepali friends and the great mountains, and we are full of love and appreciation for the remarkable Nomads Clinic team of Nepalis and Westerners who gave so much to the mountain people.”

Before arriving in Nepal, Roshi had the joy to moderate at the Dalai Lama Mind and Life Power and Care Conference in Brussels teach in Barcelona, Holland, and Germany.
Now an exhale…

This piece is excerpted from How Do You Pray?: Inspiring Responses from Religious Leaders, Spiritual Guides, Healers, Activists and Other Lovers of Humanity (p. 6). Monkfish Book Publishing. Ed. Celeste Yacoboni (2014-06-23).

Our food is a gift from the world. We are invited to eat it mindfully. And if we are lucky, we are planting our gardens in the spring, and enjoying their fruits in the ripening time. At Upaya Zen Center and at our mountain retreat, the Refuge, we have beautiful gardens. We feed many people and some of what we offer our students and guests is food from our land. Before every meal, we make a food offering. This is a way of expressing our gratitude for the food before us, as well as to vow to return this gift by serving the world. The prayer is thus:

Earth, water, fire, air and space combine to make this food. Numberless beings gave their lives and laborsthat we may eat. May we be nourished, that we may nourish life.

Roshi Joan Halifax at Shey Gompa in Nepal, October 2016

This meal offering was composed while walking the trails around Annapurna Mountain. I can still taste the Himalayan air and rice and dhal that graced this gorgeous journey. The words of the offering reflect the profound gratefulness I felt being able to walk those mountain passes and have the energy to make my way on pilgrimage on two good legs and with close friends.

You are cordially invited to join Roshi Joan, residents, and friends for a joyful Thanksgiving celebration at Upaya. Please come for meditation at 5:30 p.m. which will be followed by dinner at 6:30 p.m. We ask that you bring a vegetarian side dish or dessert to share. Please R.S.V.P. to Roberta at registrar@upaya.org or (505) 986-8518 ext.112.

]]>https://www.upaya.org/2016/10/may-nourish-life-roshi-joan-halifax/feed/0Join us in 2017 Winter/Spring Programs at Upayahttps://www.upaya.org/2016/10/join-us-2017-winterspring-programs-upaya/
https://www.upaya.org/2016/10/join-us-2017-winterspring-programs-upaya/#respondFri, 14 Oct 2016 18:01:41 +0000https://www.upaya.org/?p=36863Upaya’s upcoming programs invite us to take refuge in the Buddha’s teachings. Choose among Zen practice retreats, compassion-based training, Japanese art workshops, and travel to China. We hope you’ll join us next year for some amazing programs and renowned teachers.

From February 24 – 26, join us for G.R.A.C.E.: Training in Cultivating Compassion-based Interactions, developed by Roshi Joan Halifax. This model draws on neuroscience, social psychology, ethics, and contemplative perspectives. Joining Roshi in leading this scientifically-grounded intensive training is oncologist Anthony Back, MD and nurse ethicist Cynda Hylton Rushton, PhD, RN, FAAN.

SPRING – March and April 2017

Sesshin: The Bodhisattva’s Embracing Ways led by Sensei Hozan Alan Senauke and Genzan Quennell is March 14 – 19. Sesshin literally means ‘gathering the heart/mind’. A sesshin is an intensive multi-day Zen meditation retreat with a consistent schedule that creates a deep, quiet container for practice. Each day consists of sitting (zazen) and walking (kinhin) meditation, service and chanting (liturgy), formal meals in the zendo (oryoki), personal interviews with the teachers, work practice (samu) and physical practice.

From April 18 – May 3 join us for our International China Pilgrimage – Dogen and Hanshan Sites—a unique opportunity traveling to historical monasteries and sites where two of Buddhism’s most notable writers wrote and lived. We visit Shanghai, Putuoshan Island, Tiantong Monastery, and Hanshan’s cave among others. Your guides, Sensei Kazuaki Tanahashi and Sensei Peter Levitt, are renowned Buddhist scholars, authors, and teachers. During this pilgrimage, we practice zazen together and read passages from Dogen’s writings and Hanshan’s poems. Read more about this trip here.

On April 30, we invite you to The Ease and Joy of Mornings, a half-day of meditation practice for the community led by Maia Duerr. Maia directed Upaya’s Buddhist Chaplaincy Training Program from its inception in 2008 to 2014 and continues to serve on Upaya’s Engaged Buddhism faculty. She also serves as a Practice Mentor for Upaya.

We hope you find a retreat next year at Upaya to deepen your own practice of wisdom and compassion. The on-campus retreats and programs in the eastern hills near the Santa Fe River have simple yet elegant accommodations with vegetarian, organic meals.